Emmylou Harris on Gram Parsons’ influence, her farewell Europe dates and dog rescue

Emmylou Harris spoke from her study in Nashville about the influence of Gram Parsons on her music, her long career and the dog rescue centre she set up in her backyard. Harris said she began as a folk singer who believed “you don’t ever work with drummers”, and that Parsons – who she worked with briefly before he died after an accidental drug overdose at Joshua Tree national park in 1973, aged 26 – changed her thinking because “he had one foot in country and one in rock and was conversant in both.” She described country music as capable of great soulfulness while also saying “it can be corny.” After Parsons’ death Harris formed the Hot Band, released Pieces of the Sky in 1975 (which went gold in the US and included her song Boulder to Birmingham), and later had an artistic rebirth with 1995’s Daniel Lanois-produced Wrecking Ball.

Over the years she has won 14 Grammys, sold more than 15m records and performed with artists including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton; Billboard called her a “venturesome, genre-transcending pathfinder.” Harris, 78, said the European dates are being billed as her farewell tour but she is not retiring from performing in the US: “I’m going to continue to sing and perform here in the States as long as they’ll have me.

Key Topics

Culture, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Bonaparte's Retreat, Nashville, Wrecking Ball